USA > Vermont > Washington County > Gazetteer of Washington County, Vt., 1783-1889 > Part 45
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by whom he raised six children. Mrs. Spalding died in 1854, and two years. after he married Mrs. Dodd, a daughter of Wyllis Lyman, of Hartford, Vt., who died in 1857. Dr. Spalding died March 15, 1858.
Hon. Arunah Waterman was born in Norwich, Conn., November 8, 1778. He came of good Revolutionary stock. His father was a subaltern officer and raised to commissary in the Continental army, and his uncles were either offi- cers or soldiers. At the age of thirteen years he was a carpenter's appren- tice, and served until he was twenty-one. Soon after he was recommended as a master mechanic to Gen. Pinckney, of South Carolina, who was about to build extensively. He engaged with him, superintended his constructions to the satisfaction of the General, and by his ability and integrity gained his confidence, and was made steward and supervisor of all the General's estates in his absence as Minister of the United States at the Court of St. James. In 1801 or 1802 he came to Vermont with his brothers, Hon. Joseph and Hon. Thomas Waterman, and settled in Johnson. In the first part of the year 1814 he came to Montpelier, bought the farm on North Branch, includ- ing the water-power at the falls, and besides cultivating his farm he built a wool-carding and cloth-dressing-mill, which he conducted for a few years, and until, in connection with Seth Persons, he erected a woolen factory, which was burned in 1826. He died on his farm, then within the village, January 31, 1859. In 1821 Mr. Waterman represented Montpelier in the legisla- ture, and was reelected in 1822 and 1823, and again in 1826. When the state Senate was established, in 1836, he was one of the first senators of Washington county, and reelected the succeeding year. In 1840, without consulting him, the legislature elected him to the office of county judge, which he declined. Mr. Waterman was a fast friend of our common schools, and for many years a trustee of the Montpelier Academy. Self-taught, he became a proficient civil engineer, mathematician, geologist, and an accurate historian. In 1804 he married Miss Rebecca, daughter of Oliver Noyes, of Hyde Park, the sister of Hon. David P. Noyes. She died in 1812. One of her several children is Hon. Vernon P. Waterman, of Morristown. After more than a year Mr. Waterman married Miss Mehitable Dodge, now deceased.
Mahlon Cottrill, who was widely known in the state and outside of it as "mine host " of the Pavilion, and as "the prince " of landlords, was born in Bridgeport, in 1797. He came to Montpelier in 1826, and went into the employ of Watson Jones, who was the proprietor of a line of stages running from Montpelier to Burlington. Ira Day, of Barre, who was running a stage line southward through Royalton, soon joined Mr. Cottrill and bought out Mr. Jones, and organized the great central stage line through the state, which became the main thoroughfare from Boston to Montreal. He became well known at Washington as a mail contractor. He became the proprietor of the Pavilion, and conducted it until he sold it to Col. Boutwell, in 1856. . In 1861, in company with others, he contracted to carry the mails from Kansas.
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City to Santa Fé, and established a line of stages over that route. He died of remittent fever in Kansas City, in October, 1864.
Hon. Joseph Reed was born in Westford, Mass., March 13, 1776, where he resided until the winter of 1788, when he went to his uncle in Plymouth, N. H., with whom he lived until he was a little over eighteen, and had re- ceived the advantages of the common schools. Thus educated, he com- menced and served through an apprenticeship to the carpenters' trade. He followed this calling about six years, then relinquished it and resolved to enter mercantile pursuits. In furtherance of his resolution he served as clerk a short time, and in 1803 he opened a store in Thetford. In 1814 Mr. Reed represented Thetford in the legislature, was reelected the two succeeding years, and was representative five of the succeeding seven years. In 1818 and 1819 he was one of the judges of Orange county. He closed his very successful mercantile business in Thetford in 1827 and removed to Mont- pelier. In 1830 he was elected judge of probate, of the district of Washing- ton, and held the position three years. In 1834 he was chosen a member of the council of censors to revise the constitution of the state, and in 1840 he was chosen an elector of Vermont and cast a ballot for General Harrison for President. He was treasurer of Washington county for almost the last thirty years of his life. Judge Reed had an unprecedented successful career, in business and politics, and accumulated for his day a large fortune. He died February 6, 1859. When he had accumulated means that he could spare from his business he commenced a systematic course of benevolence, which will better perpetuate his memory than either granite or marble. This was the loaning to indigent but promising young men, without security, such sums of money as they needed to take them economically through college, and left wholly voluntary for them to repay him. Judge Reed continued this course to the time of his death. The number of educated young men who were re- cipients of his bounty were over twenty.
Charles H. Cross, son of Stephen and Sarah (Durgin) Cross, was born in Sanbornton, N. H., February 12, 1812. Up to the age of eighteen years (1830) he remained in his native town, attending the district school, and such other employments as were common for the boys of his village. At that age and date he left his home and came to Montpelier, having chosen the occu- pation of baker. He engaged with his brother, who was a practical work- man in the trade, and began at the bottom, and continued with his brother about ten years, until he mastered the trade thoroughly. In 1841 and 1842 he conducted a grocery store, but says, "I did not sell rum," which was then a common and generally supposed necessary commodity in that trade. In 1843 he instituted and established his present business, which he successfully conducted alone, with the exception of two years, when his brother was a partner with him until 1862, when the present firm of C. H. Cross & Son was formed. Up to 1858 he had rented buildings for his manufactory. "The old landmark," Masonic hall, was then for sale, which he wisely purchased
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and fitted conveniently for his business, and occupied it until the importuni- ties and necessities of the Congregational church influenced him to sell these desirable grounds, on which the society at once erected their present fine church edifice. Before he transferred to the church he had engaged the site on which the firm are now conducting their large and deservedly celebrated business. Mr. Cross, in all these years, has spared no pains or expense in producing the best goods possible, and labors with the ready ccoperation of his son to give his very numerous customers an equivalent dollar for dollar. And the result is "the Montpelier cracker," and the other productions from C. H. Cross & Son's bakery have a reputation unequalled by any other es- tablishment in New England. Mr. Cross has also found time, notwithstand- · ing his close attention to his constantly increasing business, to aid in build- ing up the town, and it is generally reported that he has built more residences than any other citizen of the place.
Mr. Cross was raised a Democrat, but soon after he became a voter he cast his lot with the opposite party, and was an old line Whig until the or- ganization of the Republican party, and is now firm in the ranks of Republi- canism. Mr. Cross is an active and influential member of the Methodist church, and a ready and liberal contributor to its general and financial inter- ests. He is a trustee of the Vermont Methodist Seminary, and exerted an active and potent influence in its establishment in Montpelier, and also has been a liberal donor to place the institution on a sound basis. As a citizen he is public spirited, and always ready not only to urge, but to aid all enter- prises to build up and forward the interests of Montpelier. Mr. Cross is social, courteous, and gentlemanly, and with his friends warm and genial ; but he finds his greatest happiness at his own home. He came to Montpelier with only four cents in his pocket, but by his integrity and honesty he has won the confidence and esteem of his large circle of acquaintance. By his indomitable energy, perseverance, and constant industry, he has earned a competence, and now at the advanced age of three-score and fifteen years he is quite well preserved in mind and body, and is still active in business.
In 1835 Mr. Cross united in marriage with Miss Caroline Houston, of Enfield, who still survives. Their children are George H., of St. Johnsbury, who is successfully conducting the business of baker and confectioner. L. Bart Cross, of Montpelier, since January, 1863, the junior member of C. H. Cross & Son, was appointed sutler of the 3d Regt. Vt. Vols., but returned home after a year and six months on account of ill health. He, like his father, is an enterprising citizen and has aided in building up his town. Os- car N. resides with his father, and is engaged in manufacturing a valuable dry air refrigerator of his own invention. Their two daughters died in child- hood.
Gen. Parley Peabody Pitkin was born in Marshfield, Vt., March 9, 1826. His father, Truman Pitkin, was the son of Hon. Stephen Pitkin, who settled in Marshfield in March, 1795. His maternal grandfather was Gen. Parley
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Davis, who settled near the center of the town of Montpelier in May, 1787. He was the second son of Truman and Rebecca (Davis) Pitkin. His mother died in his early childhood, and he was brought up under the direction of his grandfather, Gen. Davis. He received his education at the common schools and at Washington County Grammar School. In 1851 he was attacked with the prevailing "gold fever," and emigrated to California, where he spent three years in mining and in trading, with success. He then returned to his home in East Monspelier, where he remained until the Rebellion broke out in 1861. Mr. Pitkin represented his town in the legislature in 1859 and 1860,. and in the extra session at the commencement of the war. He at once offered his services to his country, and June 6, 1861, was commissioned quar- termaster of the 2d Regt. Vt. Vols., with which he went to the front. Hon. E. P. Walton was then in Washington and says he " well remembers the as- tonishment of the red tape gentlemen of the War Department at the prompti- tude of Quartermaster-General Pitkin in the discharge of his duties, and the vim with which he demanded supplies. His controlling idea was that Ver- mont boys must be taken care of, and they were as well as an efficient officer could do it." Such was his ability and efficiency that February 21, 1862, he was promoted to the rank of captain. Just before the battle of Antietam he was raised to the rank of colonel and placed at the head of the depot de- partment of the Army of the Potomac. This department he systematically reorganized and placed in most efficient working order. The immense quan- tities of war materials that passed through the hands of Gen. Pitkin to sup- ply that vast army is truly astonishing. But he was equal to every emer- gency. Gen. Pitkin continued an efficient officer in this responsible position until November, 1864, when he resigned it to accept the office of quarter- master-general of the state of Vermont. He found in the state arsenal somewhat atiquated arms, vastly in excess of the wants of the state, which with the aid of some New York brokers he succeeded in selling to foreign nations, and which materially swelled the state treasury, and lifted a part of the burden of taxation from the people. In 1865 Gen. Pitkin entered the firm of the Lane Manufacturing Co., of which he has been president since Mr. Lane's death. In 1874-75 he represented Montpelier in the legislature, and since his residence here has been much of the time in town and village offices. Gen. Pitkin is more than medium size, of fine physique, clear, dark eyes, and commanding presence. He is kind and courteous, and is trusted and respected by his fellow citizens. April 14, 1848, he was united in mar- riage with Caroline M., daughter of James Templeton, of East Montpelier. Their children are Clarence H., an able lawyer, of the firm of Pitkin & Huse ; C. P., who is secretary and treasurer of the Lane Manufacturing Company, and representative of Montpelier ; F. E., a farmer ; and F. I., a clerk in the employ of the Lane Manufacturing Company.
Charles T. Sabin was born at Montpelier, April 11, 1832. At a private. school in Montpelier, and at the academies in Cambridge and St. Albans, he-
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received what education those schools could supply to a youth who was in- clined to original investigation and to do his own thinking. His school days ended, he went to learn the machinists' trade at Fitchburg, Mass., in the shops of the Putnam Machine Company. At the end of his three years' apprenticeship, in 1853, the young journeyman was intrusted by his employ- ers with the important work of setting up their engines in all parts of the United States, and continued in their employ for five years longer. In 1858 he formed a connection with the Cook & Kimball Carriage Company, of New Haven, Conn., and continued in its employ till the breaking out of the Rebell- ion compelled the company, whose business was chiefly in the South, to sus- pend. He was for six years superintendent of a mining company in Colorado, and at the end of that time took up his residence permanently in Montpelier. He had an aptitude for mechanics and engineering, and a rare talent for these pursuits was supplemented by a judgment that was rarely at fault and a capac- ity for business that is seldom equalled. These qualities found quick and general recognition, and his services in important matters requiring the exer- cise of such special skill and ability as he possessed were frequently in requisi- tion. For example, when, in 1881, the great international cotton exposition at Atlanta, Ga., was organized, Mr. Sabin was appointed to the responsible post of chief of the department of engineering and machinery. How well he performed his difficult duties is told by a resolution of thanks adopted at a meeting of the executive committee in January, 1882, "for the admirable, faithful, and efficient manner " in which he had " performed the arduous and important duties of his office-duties which have required all the skill and ability of a most careful and efficient engineer, which have been performed to the entire satisfaction of the management, and have been conduced in a great degree to the successful accomplishment of the great enterprise." He was in- terested in the proposed air-line route between Boston and New York, and in 1883 went to London to further the financial plans of the company. Re- turning, he was a passenger on the Aurania on her first trip across the Atlantic, when she broke her shaft and was detained some two days a few miles out from New York. His professional and business ability found prompt recognition at Montpelier. In 1876 he represented Montpelier in the legis- lature, and was one of the most useful and influential members of that body. In October, 1878, he was elected a director of the Vermont Mutual Fire In- surance Company, to succeed James T. Thurston, and was chosen vice-presi- dent of the company in February, 1887, an office he held at the time of his death. In January, 1879, he was also elected a director in the National Life Insurance Company of Montpelier. He was closely identified with several local business enterprises, in which he was the moving spirit. Among these were the Montpelier Slate Company and the Sabin Machine Company, of which he was president and treasurer. His church connections were with the Church of the Messiah, of whose Sunday-school he was the superintendent. In Janu- ary, 1859, he married Emily McFarland, of Cambridge, who, with three
Medard Wright
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daughters,-Fanny T., the wife of W. G. Andrews, of Johnson, Laura H., and Jessie M.,-constitute the surviving family circle. In his family and social life Mr. Sabin displayed qualities and traits of character as striking and ad- mirable as in his public life and business intercourse. A vein of merry humor ran through his whole nature, and he had a bright wit, the shining point of whose sallies was never tipped with malice or bitterness. He had an original way of "putting things " that lent force to what he had to say and carried conviction with his words. His bonhomie was as lasting as the day, and as cheering and grateful as the sunlight. His good cheer and genial presence will long be a most delightful recollection. He was honest, he was true, he was disingenuous, he was kind and helpful.
Search far and near, you scarce will find A heart more manly and more kind.
He was liberal, public spirited, and enterprising-in the fullest and most comprehensive meaning of the term, a good citizen. Mr. Sabin died in Mont- pelier, on Monday, December 24, 1888, in the fifty-seventh year of his age.
Medad Wright, the senior member of the firm of M. Wright & Son, of Wrightsville, in Montpelier, was born in Calais, Vt., in 1812. He spent the years of his minority upon his father's farm at hard labor, with occasional re- lief from its monotony by doing mechanical jobs for his neighbors. While in boyhood he began to develop mechanical skill and inventive genius of no ordinary ability, which was clearly discovered in his inventions of several articles of practical value. His father was in rather poor circumstances financially and could not give him such an education as Mr. Wright wished, and he was obliged to commence active business in life with a very limited knowledge of science, and books obtained in attendance at the common schools of his district. Upon reaching his majority he bought the water- power which he now occupies, and began work there in 1834. At the time he took possession of the premises the timber had been felled and the ground burnt over, but the surrounding country was a primitive forest with but few exceptions. The first work he did was to construct a dam and blast a chan- nel through the rocks to convey the water to the wheels of a contemplated grist-mill, which he erected in the ensuing season, 1835, and had it completed and in operation in September. This mill was 30x30 feet, two stories high, furnished with two runs of stones, one for grinding corn, the other for wheat, with smut-mill and bolt. These millstones were taken from a quarry in Calais, and wrought to final finish by Mr. Wright's skillful hands, even to the sharpening the tools used in their construction, though he had no previous experience or instruction in such work. Next year, 1836, he enlarged his mill, and added another run of stones for coarse grain. In 1836 and 1837 the seasons were so short and cold that very little corn was ripened in Wash- ington county. Consequently Mr. Wright again enlarged his mill by erect- ing a kiln for drying oats, and furnishing two more runs of stones, one for
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hulling and the other for grinding the kiln-dried oats. At this time there were no other such mills in the surrounding section. In 1837 and '38 Mr. Wright had an immense patronage, and ground over 14,000 bushels of oats. In 1837 he completed a dwelling house. November 18, 1838, he united in marriage with Miss Mary Jane McIntire, of Montpelier, an amiable lady of fine abilities, who has continually been "a helpmeet " to her husband, and his wise and able adviser.
In 1840 he purchased an addition to his water-power, started an old style " up and down " saw-mill, which he sold with the grist-mill and the house which he occupied in 1842. The following year he built a machine shop on a small brook which flows into the North Branch, near the mills which he had sold, and there began manufacturing woolen machinery. In 1843 the grist and saw-mills again came into his possession, and he moved his machine shop to the second story of the grist-mill. In 1844 he added to his saw- mill a circular saw, which was his own designing, and the first in successful operation in the state, and which was soon found by lumbermen so much superior to the old style that he was soon engaged in building others, and his lumber and grist-mills and machine shop were all in active and successful oper- ation. Previous to 1846 he had erected a dozen or more prominent buildings in Montpelier. The high reputation of his woolen machinery, which he had placed in Colebrook and Stewartstown, N. H., and Hartford, Northfield, and Water- ville, Vt., had so much increased its demand that in December, 1846, he found it necessary to increase the facilities for its manufacture, which he did by building an addition of 20x30 feet to his machine shop. About this time he had executed a contract for $8,000, for woolen machinery, with John Herron, of Waterville. In the following spring he visited Messrs. Davis & Thurber, of North Andover, Mass., who were manufacturing new and improved carding machines and spinning jacks ; met Mr. Thur- ber at his works, and having introduced himself he informed him that his- errand there was to buy if possible a set of their patterns. To this proposal Mr. Thurber gave a very decided No ! saying that they had, at great ex- pense and trouble, produced their patterns, and that they were for their own use, and that they would let no one have them. Soon Mr. Davis ap- proached and Mr. Thurber introduced Mr. Wright, and told him his buisness,. saying also that "when Mr. Wright asked me for patterns I said no at once. Now what do you say ?" Mr. Davis considered the proposal a. short time and then replied, "Let him have them." Mr. Thurber pro- tested, but Mr. Davis said, "If he has any snap in him he will get them up himself. If he has none he can do us no harm, and we may as well make something out of the patterns." The result of this visit was the pur- chase of a set of these patterns, from which others were made, and the contract with Mr. Herron was duly completed, which included eight card- ing machines, six spinning jacks, one picker, a cotton-batter, and other machinery. Next year about the same kind and amount of machinery
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was constructed for Robert Herron, son of John Herron. This machinery was in great demand throughout all New England and Eastern New York, and gave Mr. Wright employment the ensuing ten years. The very high water of North Branch in the summer of 1858 undermined the old part of the machine shop, which fell in, and Mr. Wright sustained heavy loss in finished and unfinished work ; but fortunately the greater part of the iron working machinery was in the addition and saved.
Having occasion to use large quantities of dressed lumber in building, which he was then extensively engaged in, he constructed planing and match- ing machines, which became very celebrated and in demand. This addi- tional industry he continued to 1880, and turned out over 500 such machines. In 1860 he commenced to erect, on the site of the old machine shop, a woolen-mill 40x100 feet, four stories high, which he completed in 1861. This he sold to William Moorcroft, in December, 1862, who at once began to place in it necessary machinery, and started it the ensuing spring or summer, which continued in successful operation until it was destroyed by fire, in 1870. He also sold his dwelling house to Mr. Moorcroft in 1863, and erected an- other in the ensuing spring. In 1865 he moved off the old saw-mill and erected on its site a building 40x80 feet, and three stories high. The first floor was for wood working and the second for iron working machinery, and added largely to his stock of iron working tools. Since 1874, when he built an iron foundry, he has made his own castings. His last invention, and one of his best, (if not the best,) was completed and patented in 1878, after ex- perimenting on it at his leisure time the preceding two years. This machine polishes all kinds of stone, and has acquired a wide reputation as the best, as the following testimonials declare :-
" BURLINGTON, VT., Aug. 1I, 1882. " Messrs. M. Wright & Son.
" Dear Sirs: Replying to your inquiries as to how we like the polishing machine and lathe purchased of you some time since, we are pleased to say that they have fully answered our expectations, doing well all you have claimed for them. We also find them very satisfactory for finishing marble, on which they work rapidly and well. We think real credit is due you for the thorough manner in which they are built, as they seldom need repairs.
" Very truly yours, "J. W. GOODELL & Co."
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